It’s go time! (updated)

No chocolate kisses today. This could be more like the St. Valentine’s Day massacre … remember how ugly it got last time Tampa was in town — Voros and Konopka fighting 10 seconds into the game, the Rangers stomping over the Lightning 8-2, Tampa Bay taking exception and Malone bloodying Voros late, and Halpern fighting Dubinsky late.

And Rick Tocchet making this quote-of-the-year quality remark: “They played great. They out-hit us, they outplayed us, they out-everythinged us. They out-coached us. Every facet of the game, they out-did us. Their leaders out-did our leaders. Their goaltenders out-goaltended us. You can go down the list. The only thing we did was the bus was on time to get us to this game. The bus driver was the best thing we had.”

(That game was such a circus that the Rangers goal scorers included Drury, Girardi, Lisin, Staal, Voros and Higgins. Higgins, for God’s sake!)

So figure Tampa Bay is pretty ticked off coming into this game, recalling the Garden party the Rangers enjoyed that night, and that Tocchet surely has a long memory, and add to it that the game is really important in the playoff race — not only because it leads into the Olympic break but also because you need to win games like this at this time of year , or because the Rangers haven’t won nearly enough of these all season.

Now throw in Brandon Prust and Jody Shelley, who will probably drop ’em one one of his first shifts as a Ranger, and that Vor0s will also be in the lineup (Enver Lisin is prucha’d). Potential for some crazy stuff.

I was posting a little bit on a Lightning forum for that 8-2 game (not trolling, honest, I was invited). Their fans weren’t too happy with the game, obviously, but after the Voros goal I said it wasn’t yet embarrassing. It would only be embarrassing if Higgins scored. Then guess who scored the 8th…

We play much MUCH better against better offensively talented teams with weaker defensive systems than we do against better defensive teams with weaker offensive systems. We are getting outworked and beaten to every puck.

I’ve seen some repulsive games from this team before but this one in this first period is in a class all by itself.

First off…no body is skating. Second, no one is shooting. ( unless you call those dainty flips of the puck, shots), and their PP……oh dear, it would be a PP if anyone took any shots. But they pass, pass,pass, but I guess they were waiting for the ideal set up. And NEVER a hard slap shot ( Prospal finally unloaded one at the 16 minute mark, and later on in the period …but no one else came close to one. ( And you’d think that a team which does this much passing,,,would be good at it.0

They looked pathetic out there. And Voros, running around the ice trying to look like a player..ye gads. I guess they’ll still be waiting for that ideal set up before shooting, some time in March.
Make the playoffs? Who are they gonna bribe to take a dive?
What team will bite on their offer?

The two best passers on our team are injured, the rest of the team can no complete a crisp pass. Game will probably be 3-0 before it is 2-1, if we even score at all. Tampa is just outworking us and waiting for us to make mistakes.

It’s me. I got kicked out of the nyp for some infathomable reason, and cannot get back in no matter what. I don’t use profanity, nor snotty remarks to my peers, or any of that stuff, just for some reason ,I could no longer get my sign in accepted. Ah well….so be it.

HEY!!! That is EXACTLY what happened to me!!! I tried & tried and tried. So I stopped posting here. Hey everyone here is like family and would love to have you aboard!!! On off game nights we talk about random things to keep things interesting…

Ladies and Gents Fran knows his stuff when it comes to hockey and has some FANTASTIC stories!!

This is awesome. Some guy just proposed to his girl on the big screen. She was mortified, pissed off, and got up and stormed out of the seats, him chasing her, all on the video board. And people cheered for her.

A rare Sunday matinee for the kids! Yeah, a matinee usually fills the Garden up with all those little nose pickers. We can still charge adult prices though. Remember, no beer if they’re under 12…

I had a trade with Tampa Bay all lined up- Redden and Rozival for Stamkos. But Rozival pulled out his no-trade contract and killed the deal. Turned out it was just a copy of Kotalik’s old contract. By the time I figured it out, the deadline had passed. I hope Messier learns from this one…

(singing) “I’ve been cheated, been mistreated. When will I be loved?” Oh that’s The Big Guy’s holiday ringtone. Hey Boss! We’re back in our winning ways again! We got another sellout to start a new streak. Now you can afford to get that Valentine’s Day box of chocolate covered rubies. You gonna eat ‘em all by yourself? (click)

Let me tell you Ranger Fans, I’m sure going to miss Brash. He was the best gopher I ever had. He was way too expensive though. I guess I gotta go back to Muckler again. He’ll work for minimum wage. I don’t want to say Muck is dumb, but there’s a medicine out there named for him- Dopamine…

Gordy Clark is out at the Olympics, scouting for future Ranger draft picks. He spent a couple days looking at Slovakia’s Women’s team. He says there are some possible defensive replacements for Redden and Rozival.

Well, there’s a roster freeze through the Olympics so its nap time for me. I’d better set the alarm for March.

Agravaine, thanks for that post :) why do people knock my man!!! jeez, he’d never do that….but you assume cause you didn’t see it…..you know what happens when you assume :) (prize for who gets movie citation…..)

FIrst they showed them sitting ont he bench, but then they did a replay of the goal and you saw Dru skate to the bench Avery put out his glove/fist pumped with Dru before he sat down… it was there, I rewound and checked when I saw your first post becuase that didn’t sound right.

i’ll have to watch the 3rd archived, so capn clutch finally got 600 eh!! LMAO!! did he even smile??? and does that mean he gets a silver stick from the organEYEzation for scoring what, 70 of those points as a Ranger? hehehe

All…the guy has stepped in as captain where the captain is absent….He gave Dru his props, but let’s be clear….it’s probably awkward (I assume!) between them and what the TV shows isn’t necessarily the whole picture…I would have been happier if the 600 party happened 12 or so games ago…

i dont know laurel, usually if you really love the guy and he goes all out like that to propose, if you really love him you’re all shocked and teary and YES YES YES. she just looked like ‘ you stupid firetruck!’ i have having attention brought on me, but if my man did something like that,i’d be astounded!! Poor Nick, humiliated in front of all those people, and now a youtube legend.

Do you suppose that the coach read the posting? And read it to them after the first period? Or yet, he arrived at the same conclusion that we did simultaneously? If I’d known they were gonna take it so seriously….I’d have tried it before.

Natalie Darwitz scores the 11th goal for the US. In her Bio its written that she likes Waterskiing, wakeboarding, playing tennis, softball, inline skating and fishing. She can also juggle fire and knives.

carp just got home from the game the i heard that the wedding proposal woman was buggin out on the guy in the hallway she was swinging at him and cursing at the camera crew.it was definitely the topic of conversation the rest of the afternoon. poor guy why did he ever go after her once she said no?

that chick is why its so hard for nice girls! he probably saved himself a lot of heartache, she would probably be a bridezilla and a freakin high maintenance hildabeast as a wife. Good for him he just lost the money on the ring, instead of a lifetime of being emasculated

Well thanks for the invite folks. I’ve read this blog a few times but I’d gotten used to the guys at the other one, but that’s a total mess over there now, so..sayonara. I did pick up on the fact that most of you know each other and the whole thing has a nice familial tone to it.

Mako and I used to have some discussions in the days gone by, and it was nice to see that he’d found a home. Different when you don;t live in the nY area and get to go to the games..have to rely ontheTV for them ( and then get the hosing by the broadcasters like versus taking over.

Down here on the Space Coast in FLA, we don;t get the really cold winters and snow from back up there ( but this year has been pretty grim). Originally from CT and used to see Rangers at the old Garden on 8th Ave & 55th St. ( I’m a real old timer, go back to the days of Chuck Rayner, Edgar Laprade and Bones Raleigh. The only Finn in the league was Rangers Pentti Lund.